I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

Watching. . .

Waiting. . .

Playing!

Conversational: More Than You Ever Needed to Know

Everett has really been talking like a three year old lately, and it has been a whole lot of fun. A lot of his elaborate stories and scenarios revolve around monsters and robots--he tells about how they are mean, and that they are going to come in our house and eat all of our food, but he has no fear of them yet.

Ashley has started saying two or three-word phrases now, most of which she has picked up from Everett ("let me go!" "Move!" "Open that." "Bite, please!" "More ____!" "I seeeeeee youuuuuuu"). It is fun to see her learning from the same boy who couldn't say any of these things when we moved here in May.

On the way to church every Sunday, Everett describes in detail about the robot/monster's latest misdeeds. Until this last week, I thought I had mastered listening to him while also talking to Joel.

"Da robot in the trees. . .it will come break our car!" Everett says while clenching his fists and inserting forceful growls into the tone of his voice. "Da robot will break me window, and, and, Ashley window, and da windshield, and papa's window. And! And, and, and, da robot will eat da deer and da moose and da rabbit and da baby deer. And da robot. . .Mommy. . .Mommy. . . MOMMY! You not listening to me, Mommy!"

"Oh, I'm sorry Everett. What else is the robot going to do?"

"Da robot, very big robot! It will break our car! It will go to our house and eat all our ice cream, and milk, and, and, and our pizza, and our bread, and all our oranges!"

"Do robots like to eat oranges, Everett?" I question.

"YEAH!" he growls happily. Then, he'll sit and stare out his window for a few seconds, a dreamy grin on his face, the dimple in his right cheeck accentuating his deep and involving thoughts before he begins his next narrative. His articulation is a little off sometimes, but he is worlds away from where he was this summer.


As a big brother, Everett also enjoys being a whistle-blower. Ashley will occasionally dredge up a lost pacifier from somewhere (always involving copious amounts of lint) in her room. Everett will not tolerate this. He marches up to her and authoritatively swipes it from her mouth, leaving bits of spittle flying in its wake. Ashley immediately cries out, detailing the injustices of the situation with her unintelligble, tearful shrieks.

"No, Ash-wey!" He declares, "No pacifier! You only get it when you're sw(l)eeping!"

Ashley screams louder and places her trembling hands by her mouth for effect.

Everett then tosses the pacifier somewhere out of reach, like up on the counter or back behind her crib. Then, he marches away, satisfied that he stopped his sister from yet again breaking the rules.

Often I feel like giving it right back to Ashley, just to prove to Everett that he is not in charge. Usually I just make him sit by himself for a minute before apologizing to Ashley (who is usually still upset but will grudgingly look at him as he pats her nicely on the head).

A few times, Everett has come up to me and started lifting up the bottom of my shirts, stating that we are going to get William out now. I have to explain to him that I am going to go to the hospital and let the doctor help me, and that William is not ready to be born yet, and Everett is usually appeased but disappointed.


Today Everett was in the kitchen explaining his elaborate plans to Ashley for a house constructed out of books. He reached the end of his explanation before realizing that Ashley had already left the room. Shaking his head, he looked up at me and said, "Ashley is not wistening to me!" before dashing out of the room to round her up again.

Also in his daily vernacular:

"Wait a second! Wait a second! I have an idea!"
"Thank-you. I say dat at school, Mommy. And yes, pwease! I say dat, too."
"Mommy. . .I'm going to work now! Bye! I will miss you!" (later:) "I'm back, Mommy! I missed you!"
"Hey! Let me go, Mommy. LET ME GO!"
"My poop not gween today, Mommy. Just brown."
"No, Mommy. I can do it Aw By Mysewf!"
"I can't do it, I can't do it! It's too twicky, Mommy!"

(disgusted grunting sigh) "I can't find it! I wooked evewywhere! I wooked in my woom, and mommy's woom, and da bafwoom. . .and I can't find it anywhere!"

It has been a lot of fun. Mostly, though, I love hearing his prayers. After opening it by addressing his Father in Heaven, most of them go something like this:

"I wove (love) my dogs, and my book, and my cars. Pwease bwess da food dat mommy made. I wove my dogs. Bwess us to be safe. I wove my dogs. In da name of Jesus Christ, Amen!"

I think his prayers are the most sincere ones said in this house. It will be fun to hear how his prayers change as he gets older and learns to say more grown-up things, but I think I will always miss this age of innocence when everything is so simple, and that even at a young age Everett understands that he has a Heavenly Father who loves him and listens to him.

The Best Medicine, Sometimes

Ashley is sick today. She is the last one to get the bug the rest of us had. . .and the second one to exercise license to mope about it (while neither Joel nor I enjoy being sick, we have too many other things to do to let it affect our lives, and neither of us are great purveyors of sympathy in these cases).

Other than the fact that it makes me sad to see my children physically uncomfortable, it is a lovely feeling to have her warm little body snuggled close to me. As soon as I set her on my lap, I can feel her body relax and her breathing slow with contentment. Occasionally she perks her head up and says "Go Horse Go!" as she and Everett are watching the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimeron.

Then she'll lay her head back down in the curve of my neck and her bottom lip will curl out in a minor I-don't-feel-so-well pout. She might make a small whining noise and reach for her water cup, but for the most part she is quiet and calm.

Right now, I am her best medicine. Right now, it makes her feel better to just be sitting close to me. Right now, she'll even forgo her special stuffed monkey for my attention.

It makes me glad. Soon she'll be older and want nothing but a heavy dose of Tylenol and permission to go spend the next hours locked away by herself in her room. It is rewarding to have children who still need me for everything, even if I feel a little worn out sometimes.

Even Everett, in the throes of a major "No, I want to do it all by myself!" phase, wants me when he is feeling sick, sad, lonely, or happy. Sometimes if he is a little grumpy I say to him, "Everett, I think you need to snuggle, don't you?"

He always gets a sweet little smile on his face (his dimple making its requisite appearance) and sits on my lap for a while. He wraps his arms around my neck and sighs as he buries his face in my shoulder. His hair smells like boy, and I don't have much room on my lap anymore, but it is a welcome break for both of us. After a few minutes, Everett jumps up and resumes whatever activity he was absorbed in, minus the frustration. It is short-lived but it sustains both of us.

After Everett goes to preschool at 11:30 am, it is Ashley's special time. I invite her to sit on my giant bed with me and read some stories; she always looks delighted and takes great pleasure in picking out the books for the day. Ten minutes turns into thirty as we both enjoy some quiet, restful time with each other before her nap.

And, let's be honest: I don't move very well nowadays, so quiet time is about all I have to offer. Fortunately my kids don't seem to notice. This is a very good thing, because after the baby is born, I'll probably be too tired for a while to do very many active things, but my hope is that I will still carve out enough time to spend individually with my children. With the three of them so close in age, I don't want any of them to feel neglected.

Some days I feel that I give everything I have and it still isn't enough. But there are other times when I feel that the more I give, the more I have to give. Today is one of those days. Tomorrow might not be.

But I am glad for the days like today, because then I don't feel so hopeless on the hard days.

Delaying Sleep

A friend of mine posted on her blog today about how her daughter colored multiple surfaces in her room with a highlighter while she was supposed to be napping. It reminded me of a picture I took of Ashley a couple of days ago.

Lately, Ashley has enjoyed reading books in bed before her nap. I don't mind her doing this because whether she sleeps the entire time or not, she is still resting her body. Plus, sometimes she reads when she wakes up, too, which means she wants to stay in there longer. I'm not going to lie, this is a huge plus if I, too, have been attempting a nap.

On this particular day, I gave her the books she asked for without looking closely enough at them. One of these books comes with a non-washable white board-type marker, which I always (yeah, apparently) store elsewhere.

I guess she found it.

(I removed the marker from her right hand before taking the picture; you can see that her hand is still positioned to hold it.)

The interesting thing is that with the exception of a tiny spot, her clothes and blankets were free of marker. She had fun getting it on everything else, though (including her pillowcase, which is white and which I now need to bleach).

Someday when she's old enough to not color on walls and other surfaces, I'll show her this picture and we'll have a good laugh.

V-Day: Preschool Edition

Everett has spent the last week creating a multitude of brightly-colored, scribbled on, be-dazzled-to-the-point-of-being-garish valentines for many people we know. He had a great time and it was fun to see what kind of pictures he thought were appropriate to draw for a holiday celebrating love. Monsters and robots? Of course. Bananas? Why not? Pizza? Sure.

He did draw some people, too. He has the basic format down:

1) Draw a circle for the head

2) Add between 2 and 46 dots for eyes

3) triangle nose

4) Make a crooked mouth--above, below, or on top of any other facial features.

5) Place a line around the top of the head for hair

6) Stick two arms out where the ears should be

7) Don't forget to have two long legs sprouting directly from the chin

When Everett came home from preschool on Tuesday with a class list for valentines, it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, he was supposed to bring something today to celebrate the upcoming holiday.

I was tired of cleaning up glitter, flowers, paper scraps, and broken crayons from the valentines he had already completed, so I didn't want to help him make any. I didn't want to go out and buy valentines. Plus, you know, the last month of pregnancy is supposed to equal low energy. For me, this just means I embrace my inner slacker.

Then I saw a brilliant idea online somewhere. Why not do something like this:

I'm no photographer, so it's just a low-quality 4 x 6 snapshot, but it served the purpose just fine. In Everett's hand I made two horizontal slashes and inserted three suckers.

Easy, peasy (except for some printing hiccups; thanks a lot, CVS). It takes no artistic ability. It is different, fun, and takes very little time to assemble. It could even be free if you were to use one of those promotions that are all over the photo websites.

It wasn't even that hard to get Everett to pose. All I had to do was promise him one of those suckers. (The best part about preschoolers is they don't care whether the suckers are dum-dums or tootsie roll pops. We only had dum-dums.)

When Everett came home, he was excited to show me the valentine he made for me in class. It had random glitter streaks and pieces of lace and buttons all over it. He took great pleasure in showing me where it said "Love, Everett," and gave me a giant hug. It certainly wasn't magazine worthy, but it is the first valentine I've gotten in a long time, and it is the first one I've gotten from one of my kids. It will stay on the refrigerator for a while.

Everett also loved going through his loot. He has 8 kids in his class, so the pickings were limited, but he was thrilled with all six suckers, one package of smarties, and a pixie stix dipper thing.

Fortunately he was okay with me letting him pick out only a couple of items to munch on.

I think it was a successful pre-Valentine's Day day. I'm glad I have a couple more years before we have to worry about 26 of these for each child. Maybe I'll have to recycle the photo idea a few times. . .

Cooking and Friday Nights

Often we like to have a family movie night on Friday nights. Everett gets very excited, and we enjoy showing him some movies we enjoyed as kids. There are so many to choose from, and Everett has liked all of them. Last Friday was our Stuart Little night. Everett especially loved this movie and learned what it means to be an orphan, that mice can drive toy cars and model boats, and that he would like to have a mouse in this family.

We also like to do pizza on these nights. Everett loves to help make it, and he is thrilled that I let him make his very own little pizza. He calls it his "Everett pizza" and is very careful with the assembly. I like doing pizza because everyone likes it, I can just throw the crust ingredients in the dough cycle on my bread machine, and it is a good way to use our WIC cheese.

(before toppings)

We also like to have homemade noodles. I like pasta just fine, but I love it when it is homemade. We put it in soups, have it with meatballs, or just with regular sauce. It is a nice thing for us to do because it is very cheap and easy, but the result is great. Someday I will get a pasta press and then I won't have to roll it all out by hand. I'm sure we'll have them even more often then.

Last time we made noodles, I gave Everett a pizza cutter and let him cut out his own noodles. I cooked them separately so I wouldn't have to fish them out of the main pot, and even though I wasn't watching and overcooked them, Everett scarfed them down. It is always fun to see him so very proud of his "Everett noodles".

It is fun to have a little kitchen helper. Everett is just lucky he is the oldest child. When the kids are older, there is no way that I'm going to start cooking noodles in five different pots just so everyone can have the ones they made!

Why My House is Rarely Quiet. . .

My feeling, with almost three little ones in this house, is that if the noises are loud but happy, it is a good thing. I have no problem with monsters roaring or doggies barking or children yelling out songs and dancing.

Gales of laugher? Check. Delighted yells of anticipation? Fine by me.

There are too many other things to worry about that take up my time, like whether we have enough diapers.

And, I try to enjoy the noise somehow--In 15-20 years when the kids start moving out, I know I'll miss it. Besides, in a few years a lot of the noise will be due to bickering. I'm just glad we're not there yet.


It has been a while since I've posted a video, so I took this one the other night of Joel playing with the kids. It is a movie that makes the kids giggle and giggle as they watch it, and it shows why our house is often a little on the noisy side.

(it's a bit long, but at least we still kept it under a minute.)

Password: doggies

Doggies from Elise Johnson on Vimeo.